


Found family

by bluecalicocat



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 2000 line best friends, Alternate Universe, Angst, Anxiety, But he never actually appears, Cuddling, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Han Jisung | Han-centric, Healing, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Hwang Hyunjin-centric, Insecurity, Kim Seungmin-centric, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)-centric, Magic, Minor Injuries, Nightmares, Overworking, Parent Bang Chan, Platonic Relationships, Recovery, They Look After Each Other, Worry, hahah jyp is the bad guy in this, he just keeps picking up strays, technically it's minho picking up strays, they all have powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25219096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecalicocat/pseuds/bluecalicocat
Summary: hyunjin, jisung, felix and seungmin are training to debut under jyp while trying to control their magical abilities without passing out or setting a building on fire. things suck, until one day, they don't.without really knowing how it happens, they find themselves adopted by some guy named bang chan. this is apparently a common occurrence. at least they're not forced to overwork themselves anymore (and maybe they get some comfort and cuddles in the process, so it's not like anyone's complaining)
Relationships: Bang Chan & Lee Felix, Han Jisung | Han & Everyone, Han Jisung | Han & Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin & Everyone, Hwang Hyunjin & Seo Changbin, Kim Seungmin & Everyone, Kim Seungmin & Yang Jeongin | I.N, Lee Felix (Stray Kids) & Everyone
Comments: 25
Kudos: 388





	1. Chapter 1

_“boys, i have an idea. what if… you debuted as a k-pop group?”_

sounds simple enough.

_“it would be easier for me to keep you safe that way.”_

that doesn’t make sense. does it?

_“of course we would have to keep your powers hidden from the public, but it would give you a reason to be staying with me. you wouldn’t have to sneak around as much, plus we could gain some profit from it.”_

it’s not the reason they came here, but apparently, it’s what park jinyoung wants them to do, and they’ve never really had much to say when it comes to making decisions around here. all they have to do is learn to sing, dance and rap. that’s not too hard… right?

the four of them were taken in by park jinyoung a little less than two years ago, and have been with him ever since. the older man is rich, so he can provide for them without problem, and he also knows a lot about magic. he’s been helping them navigate the complex world of supernatural abilities, and all the things they’ve been struggling with. it’s probably thanks to him that they haven’t made any buildings explode yet, or caused something equally as terrible happen.

they owe him a lot, and for that reason, they plan to follow through with his plan to have them become a k-pop group, even if their current situation kind of sucks. the fact that they all love music doesn’t make it any more bearable.

seungmin has collapsed on the couch at the back of the practice room. he’s laying face down on it, so they’re not sure if he’s still alive. it wouldn’t be surprising if he wasn’t.

felix looks like he’s trying to set a world-record for finishing a water bottle the fastest. at this rate, he might succeed. he’s sitting on the floor in the middle of the practice room, pretty close to the mirror, which is fogged up.

jisung is sitting with his head between his knees a few meters behind the other boy, breathing heavily. they’re not sure if he’s exhausted from practice, or if he’s trying to stop himself from having a breakdown. no one can tell the difference nowadays.

hyunjin is the only one still standing, but he’s not any better off than the other guys. his hair is sticking to his forehead, and his eyes are glazed over, as if he's not seeing what’s in front of him.

they’re all exhausted, and they wish they could see the end of it, but they can’t. park jinyoung wants them to debut in a month. even if they manage that, it wouldn’t be the end of it, because after that, it would be promotions and official stages and even harder practice sessions.

“we need to… go again”, hyunjin mumbles in between deep breaths.

felix is the only one who reacts as he puts his water bottle down. or maybe it’s not a reaction to what hyunjin just said, since the bottle seems to be empty and he has to put it down, anyway.

both seungmin and jisung are still cut-off from the world. felix casts a quick glance at them before facing hyunjin.

“i don’t think they’re up for it”, he comments, not sounding much better himself. his voice is hoarse from too many hours trying to perfect his korean pronunciation. he’s been living here for two years, but jyp wants every trace of an accent gone if he’s going to be the leader, which is what the man has decided. an odd decision, really, but it’s not their place to question it.

“i can’t be the main dancer”, a small voice mumbles from behind the pair, and they turn back to jisung, who has now lifted his head and is giving them a pained look.

park jinyoung had announced their official positions the previous week, and he did not take into consideration what they’re actually good at. for all they know, he might as well have thrown darts at a board to decide who would have which position.

maybe hyunjin wants to comfort jisung, or maybe he just gives in to the exhaustion, but he crouches down on the floor before responding.

“you’re great at dancing, ji”, he says with a small smile. “you’ll do well.”

the other looks doubtful.

“but i can’t control my powers when i dance.” jisung huffs, most likely annoyed with himself for it. “if i exert myself too much, it’s either like my whole body becomes charged with electricity, or it’s like every ounce of energy drains from my body. there’s no in between, and i have no control over it. i don’t wanna collapse in the middle of a stage.”

“no one’s gonna collapse”, felix ensures him. “we’ll look out for each other, and make sure nothing like that happens. none of us is gonna collapse.”

“seungmo might”, hyunjin comments with a nod towards the furthest back of the room.

seungmin is trying and failing to sit up, and it ends with him falling back against the couch with a groan.

jisung starts getting up from the floor as soon as he sees this.

“no, stay down!” he orders, his tone firm despite the fact that his own knees shake when he stands. “don’t try and get up.”

there’s a worrying spark of blue light around jisung’s fingers, and then the lights in the ceiling flicker. it only lasts for a second, right before jisung’s legs bend and he falls to the floor again with a thump. he manages to catch himself with his hands, and when he turns back to glance at the other two, his expression is more sheepish than hurt.

“or maybe not”, he says.

felix gets up with a chuckle.

“don’t worry, i’ll go get you both some water”, he says after a quick glance toward seungmin. hyunjin crawls over to where jisung fell, checking that the boy is okay (or as okay as he can be, given the circumstances).

their practices are getting worse and worse, but they are not going to let each other fall. they’ve made it this far. a month more, and then they might finally be able to make up for all the lost hours of sleep, all the skipped meals, all the pain and exhaustion they’re being put through.

if they can just hang on a little longer, they’ll be fine.

-:-

spoiler alert: they’re not fine.

hyunjin pushes himself too hard in vocal practice, the position of main vocalist feeling more like a burden than the achievement it’s supposed to be. his powers have always been closely tied to his emotions, and the insecurity causes him to lose control a lot more often. he has accidentally turned invisible more times in the past week than the last year combined. every time it happens, he gets the same lecture about how “visuals can’t be invisible, it goes without saying! learn to control it!”

both seungmin and felix have been rapping, singing and speaking until their lips bleed and their tongues feel numb. in felix’s case, it’s the same shit as always: speak clearer, better, more fluently. the fact that he only started learning the language about two years ago is not a good excuse to park jinyoung, so the boy speaks until his voice is gone, and once it is, he moves on to practice reading or writing instead. there's no such thing as rest.

seungmin is their main rapper. he does the same thing as the other two, working until he doesn’t have a voice left, but it doesn’t matter how much be improves. the critique is always harsh. it’s not that he’s clueless when it comes to rapping, but their boss always seems to want more from him, and he’s not sure he has much more to give at this point.

jisung’s control over his powers only worsens with the increased practice hours, his position as main dancer often forcing him to stay longer than the rest in the dance studio and wasting more energy than he has. eventually, he starts carrying a light bulb in the pocket of his clothes. it gives him somewhere to direct all the extra magical energy he generates by dancing, even though it usually ends with the light bulb exploding and almost always injuring him in the process. the choreographers don’t care as long as no glass ends up on the floor. it’s kind of sad, really, to see them look toward jisung at the sound of glass breaking, and then looking away again once they’ve made sure that all the glass stuck inside his clothes. they don’t care about his bloodied hands as long as he doesn’t stain the floor.

the four of them spend the long nights in a dark bedroom, holding whispered conversations about how uncertain this all seems, how insecure every session with a vocal coach or choreographer makes them feel.

the closer they get to the date they’re set to debut, the worse it gets.

-:-

nothing changes for the better until hyunjin and felix go out to visit a cafe during one of their rare breaks. seungmin and jisung had both been feeling too bad to leave the room, so the others promised to bring back something for them. despite the worry for their friends, they feel more free than they have in a long time.

the cafe isn’t busy. lunch hours are over, so they have some peace and quiet as they sit in a corner near the window, sipping on their drinks peacefully. there’s no need to speak.

“uhh, excuse me”, a voice says from somewhere close to them. felix and hyunjin both whip their heads around to stare at the stranger.

the first thing they notice is how handsome he is, and in a very intimidating way. not bad, but it’s definitely surprising that he has decided to stop by their table.

“yes?” hyunjin says, relatively sure that felix’s voice is too weak to be used right now.

the stranger attempts a smile.

“sorry for bothering you, but i think i recognize you?” his tone somehow manages to sound both confident and unsure at the same time. “on instagram, i think. aren’t you park jinyoung’s trainees?”

it takes hyunjin an embarrassingly long time to remember that it is, in fact, public knowledge that park jinyoung is going to debut a boy group before the end of the month. pictures of their faces have been posted on instagram as proof.

“oh, uhh, yeah, that’s us”, hyunjin confirms, forcing himself not to laugh as he gives the boy a tense smile. that would make this even more awkward than it already feels.

“cool. my name’s lee minho.”

minho must pick up on how weird they find this exchange, but he doesn’t seem to care. in fact, he pulls out another chair by their table and sits down, not bothering to ask first. hyunjin is impressed by how comfortable he's acting in this situation.

“aren’t you going to order?” felix asks, and just like hyunjin had expected, his voice is hoarse, barely loud enough for them to make out what he’s saying. minho isn’t fazed by it.

“my friend is ordering right now.” he gestures toward the person waiting in front of the register.

hyunjin squints, trying to remember where he’s seen that face before, but nothing comes to mind.

“i feel like i recognize him”, he comments out loud. minho doesn’t look confused by that.

“that’s very possible”, he says. “that’s yang jeongin, and he was in an idol group before. chan hyung saved him, though.”

“saved him?” felix repeats, scrunching up his nose at the weird phrasing. minho nods.

“yeah. the conditions were horrible. the practice hours were inhumane, food and sleep was always getting worse, and all of that made him constantly lose control over his powers.”

hyunjin and felix both choke on their drinks. the strange boy next to them watches in amusement as the pair continues to cough.

hyunjin recovers first, and immediately asks what they’re both wondering.

“powers?” he repeats. maybe it's not the best way to phrase the question, but whatever. his point comes across well enough.

“yup”, minho confirms, way too calm considering he just exposed his friend for having magical abilities. it’s not something you typically tell people, since it’s not common knowledge that magic exists. he then glances at hyunjin. “you fingers have been been switching from visible to invisible since i came in here. i put two and two together and realized that we’re all the same.”

“we’re all the same?” felix echoes. “does that mean you’re also…”

“magical? yeah. my power is ice”, minho tells them. he hesitates before continuing. “me and jeongin live with two other guys who are both magical as well. one of them is bang chan, who i mentioned earlier. he kinda saved us all. he’s the one who saw the post on instagram, cause apparently he knows park jinyoung. so does innie, actually. he’s the one who put together the group jeongin was in before.”

that information is a bit harder to piece together with what hyunjin and felix know already. it doesn’t add up.

“but park jinyoung doesn’t have any other groups”, hyunjin says slowly. “he hasn't worked in the entertainment industry before, and we’ve been with him for the past two years. the timeline doesn’t make sense.”

“park jinyoung is a shapeshifter.” minho says it so casually that felix, once again, chokes on his drink. hyunjin pats his back in an attempt to be helpful, but he’s much too focused on what minho is saying to actually pay attention to his friend. “he changed his name and appearance as soon as innie’s group fell apart, which was pretty much the moment he left. that would be just a little over two years ago now, so yeah, the timeline is narrow, but it definitely adds up. park jinyoung has never been one to stay still for long. he’s always looking for new people to use. i’m not gonna lie, he does help them in the beginning, just like he claims to. it gets worse, though.”

there’s something beneath minho’s casual demeanor, something much more serious, and it sends chills down hyunjin’s spine.

“how do we know we can trust you?” he questions in a weak voice. this whole exchange is proving to be a lot deeper than it had seemed at first glance.

minho doesn’t look at him as he responds.

“you don’t have to”, he says. “but if your situation is even half as bad as the one jeongin was in, it would physically hurt me not to tell you about this. you can chose not to trust me if you don’t want to.”

they consider his words for several moments.

“it sucks”, felix eventually says. his half-dead voice remains emotionless, but the expression on his face is filled with pain. he looks at hyunjin. “i’m exhausted, and it doesn’t get better. i don’t wanna go back to the practice room.”

“so what’s stopping you from just, i dunno, walking out of there and never going back?” minho asks. hyunjin and felix stare at him.

“but…” felix starts. “i know it’s difficult, but he’s helping us. we wouldn’t survive without him.”

“that’s right”, hyunjin is quick to agree. “without him, our own powers might have killed us already. he’s helping us manage them. the situation is bad, but we can’t even control our powers on our own. that’s how we ended up with him in the first place.”

“sounds like what chan hyung does to me and a couple other guys”, minho muses. “aside from the exhaustion, insane hours, and, from the sounds of it, emotional manipulation that he puts you through. chan hyung does all the helpful stuff that park jinyoung does, but without all the hurt and pain.”

they can’t even find it within themselves to argue more.

they shouldn’t trust strangers. at the same time, there’s no way this stranger could make their lives worse than they already are, and at this point, they are looking for a reason to get out, any reason. this is more than enough for them to seriously consider it.

felix opens his mouth to speak.

“okay…”

one of the phones on the table lights up, and effectively interrupts whatever felix had been about to say. they both stare at it for a moment before hyunjin reaches out to answer, not caring that it’s technically felix’s phone, since the caller ID reads ‘seungmo’. felix would have told him what the other has to say, anyway.

“hey, you’re on speaker”, hyunjin says and holds the phone up. “there’s also a stranger sitting right next to us, just so you know.”

“you need to come back.” seungmin’s tone is laced with worry, much more frantic than they’re used to hearing from him. he doesn’t even acknowledge hyunjin’s words. it makes both hyunjin and felix tense up, and even minho peers at the phone curiously. “come back now. please, it’s jisung. i don’t know what to do, he just… collapsed. and the entire building has lost electricity. he’s bleeding, the light bulb burst, i don’t know what to do… there’s no one else here. please hurry.”

hyunjin and felix are standing up from their seats before the other finishes talking, and to their surprise, minho mirrors the movement.

they don’t bother checking if he follows them out, but based on how he calls for his friend over by the counter (“yang jeongin, get your ass over here, we need to go!”), it seems like he plans to do so. not that they mind. they appreciate any help they can get, especially now that the situation seems to be quite urgent.

-:-

despite how much their muscles ache, they run the entire way back to the building park jinyoung owns. all the windows are dark, and their key cards don’t work for the entrance, but neither do the locks. they walk right past all the usually locked doors, not really noticing minho and jeongin behind them despite knowing that they’re there.

the elevators obviously don’t work either, so they’re stuck running (or at least walking quickly) up six flights of stairs to get to the practice room where they’ve spent the entire morning.

the door is open, but the hallway is too dark to see well in. there’s light coming from inside the room, though, which should be weird considering there aren’t any windows in there, but seungmin is. he might have started a fire.

hyunjin and felix lead the way, and the other two follow silently. they don’t dwell on the fact that they haven’t even spoken to jeongin before, or that minho is technically a stranger, before leading them into the practice room.

the destruction isn’t as bad as expected. there’s shattered glass on the floor, spread out around the shape of a body, but the room is not fully dark. seungmin is sitting to the side of the body (that hyunjin realizes way too belatedly is jisung) with a bright flame burning in one of his hands.

he looks up at them as they enter, opening his mouth.

“he’s awake”, the boy informs them, gesturing toward jisung. “but i told him to stay down. he cut his palm pretty badly, there’s glass everywhere. be careful.”

hyunjin and felix make their way toward the pair in the middle of the floor, minho and jeongin staying a bit behind.

to their surprise, minho is the first to speak.

“hey”, he says in an incredibly gentle voice. jisung blinks up at him, looking kind of like a starfish where he has dropped unceremoniously to the floor. “i’m minho, and i guess you’re jisung?”

the starfish nods, and minho continues.

“good. how are you feeling?”

“like all the electricity in the building was just sucked into my body”, he answers, sounding a bit dazed. the answer makes a lot of sense, considering that’s probably exactly what happened.

minho giggles.

jisung is physically vibrating as he lays on the floor, and his skin is most definitely too hot for anyone to touch. that’s how it usually is whenever he’s been charged with too much energy. hyunjin is pretty sure they’ve tried to cook eggs on his stomach one of the times he got like this, and it actually worked. his skin is way too hot for a normal person to touch.

or… it should to be. yet, minho reaches out a hand and carefully places it on jisung’s shoulder, smiling gently at the younger as he does. he doesn’t even react to the heat.

the other 2000-liners stare at minho in astonishment, and jisung relaxes under his touch. minho then moves his hand underneath the boy's body, holding it against his back to help him sit up. everyone else in the room is silent as they watch the pair.

once jisung is in a sitting position, his head lolls forward, but minho is there before he can topple over and puts a hand against his forehead, before gently guiding the younger boy to rest his head against minho’s own shoulder.

“it’s weird”, jisung mumbles. “i feel really tired, even when i have all the energy of the entire building in me.”

“no, think about it”, minho says. “it makes sense. your body suddenly has to deal with all this electricity, and that takes a lot of your own energy, the one you haven’t borrowed from the building. speaking of, do you think you could give that back? or are you gonna keep it hostage forever?”

despite his obvious exhaustion, jisung grins.

“aw, man”, he whines jokingly. “i was really enjoying this whole damsel in distress thing we had going on.”

minho snorts.

“sure, me too. but wouldn’t it be better if we could get to know each other when you’re not at the brink of passing out on me?”

jisung seems to agree with this. still with his head leaning on minho’s shoulder, both of them sitting surrounded by glass on the floor, he closes his eyes in concentration. minho has one hand keeping jisung’s head in place, just in case, and the other is making circles on the boy’s shoulder.

the lights in the practice room come back to life all at once, and it has all of them except jisung blinking in surprise at the suddenly very bright room.

seungmin still has an open flame on one of his palms, but his worry hasn’t settled and he can’t put the fire out. his emotions have taken control.

the fox-like boy who’s been watching them from a corner of the room is the only one who notices seungmin’s struggle. he takes a few steps closer, almost as if he’s uncertain about whether or not he’s allowed to approach them, before lifting a hand cautiously. seungmin looks at him, not sure about what’s coming next.

“do you want me to get rid of the fire?” the boy asks. he seems a bit shy.

seungmin nods, not sure how it’s going to happen but grateful that he won’t have to walk around with one hand in the air to avoid setting things on fire for the next twenty minutes. that’s what he usually has to do, and it’s getting rather annoying.

“yes please”, he says.

the boy points at seungmin’s hand, and a beam of water shoots out. it only takes a few seconds before every trace of a fire is gone, and seungmin lowers his hands again, wiping it against his pants.

he smiles at the other boy, who has his face turned to the ground again.

“thank you.”

the other mumbles something that vaguely resembles a ‘you’re welcome’, but seungmin isn’t sure since he’s already turning around and retreating to the room’s corner.

hyunjin and felix are still watching minho and jisung in the middle of the room, the older of the two now supporting most of the younger’s weight as he appears to have drained himself by returning the electricity to the building.

minho feels their eyes on him and turns his head toward the two boys. they’re still amazed with the fact that he even managed to touch jisung when he was filled with electricity. the older sends them a grin.

“so, are you staying here?” minho asks. as much as he wants to save them from whatever terrible conditions they're living in, he know he can't force them. they have to make the final decision.

they glance at each other. after everything they’ve talked about today, and everything they’ve been through in the past months, staying here sounds like the worst option. however, they don’t have anywhere else to go. jisung’s and felix’s families aren’t in the country, hyunjin doesn’t really have a family to return to, and seungmin isn’t sure his mom would want to take him back after the argument they had the last time they met. she’s not magical, and she hates seungmin’s magic almost as much as she hates seungmin’s father.

“i’m not”, jisung mumbles in the silence that follows. “i’ll swim all the way to malaysia if i have to, but i’m not staying here. fuck jyp.”

“i’m with jisung”, seungmin quickly agrees.

felix looks to hyunjin and shrugs. the other two are in agreement, plus him and hyunjin had already been considering the option of leaving. that means all four of them are on the same page.

“good, then that’s decided”, hyunjin says. he’s quiet for another moment. “uhh, just a small problem. where are we gonna go? jyp owns the apartment, and we can’t go to any of our families…”

“stay with us”, jeongin addresses them for the first time. he’s still standing off to the side, but now he’s at least looking at them. “chan hyung loves bringing home strays, plus you all seem to have some mild to serious issues that will definitely activate his parental instincts. he’s gonna love you.”

if minho didn’t have an exhausted boy draped over himself, he would have smacked jeongin for the way he phrases it, but he has to settle for a glare.

“we’re not strays, and neither are them”, minho says in a firm tone. “but yeah, innie is right. you can stay with us. chan hyung will definitely fuss over you, and changbinnie won’t hesitate to suffocate you in cuddles. fair warning, though: none of us have a good grasp on the concept of being strangers, so be ready to have your personal space invaded!”

to the four boys, it sounds perfect.

-:-

jisung only gets two steps away from the practice room before giving up on walking, and then minho carries him on his back the rest of the way to their house.

hyunjin and felix are talking non-stop, the latter still trying to work his way around his dying voice, to a much calmer jeongin who tries his best to keep up with them. seungmin is walking to the side, grinning as jeongin’s confusion grows with every question.

“what’s your power?”

“have you ever ridden a horse?”

“what did jyp look like when you knew him?”

“do you think you would survive a zombie apocalypse?”

not all the questions make sense, but at least it helps them get more comfortable around each other. the four previous trainees haven’t had anyone aside from each other for the past two years. they’ve pretty much been isolated from everyone, and meeting new people is exciting.

minho is left alone as he’s busy carrying jisung, who sometimes mumbles some things to the older, at which he grins, but jeongin doesn’t have the same luck. felix and hyunjin are relentless.

after jeongin has explained the exact tactic he would use to survive a zombie apocalypse, they seem to reach the house where minho, jeongin and the other two strangers live. it looks normal enough from the outside, but minho has told them that everyone who lives here has magic, so it can’t possibly be as boring as it looks.

“normally, i would warn them before bringing home strangers, but i guess this time, it can be a surprise”, minho says, waiting for jeongin to open the gate so he can walk up to the front door. his own hands are currently busy supporting jisung, so he can’t do it himself.

“do you bring home a lot of strangers?” seungmin asks, trying not to make it too obvious that he’s teasing the older.

minho scoffs.

“inappropriate question, young man”, he scolds. seungmin throws his hands up with a smile.

“no, no, i didn’t mean it like that!”

“just kidding, i know you didn’t. but no, i don’t normally adopt strangers like this. that’s chan hyung’s thing. he’s the one who found us three, and he also kind of found you guys, even though it was through instagram. i wouldn’t have approached you if he hadn’t told me about you first.”

they’re not given any chance to respond as jeongin throws the front door open and steps inside, raising his voice to yell,

“we’re home, and we brought new friends!”

“if it’s another stray cat, you can tell minho hyung that he’s getting kicked out!” a voice yells back from further inside the house. “my entire bed is covered in cat hair. what the fuck, dori!”

“i love cats”, jisung mumbles, his cheek squished against minho’s shoulder. his eyes are closed and he doesn’t seem to be aware of much. cats, though, that gets his attention.

minho grins.

“that’s fantastic.” he turns toward the other three, who are still standing right outside the front door, trying to take everything in. “i’m glad you do, because if you don’t like cats, i’m sorry, but we can’t be friends.”

“i like them, but i’m allergic”, hyunjin tells him. minho squints at him, before giving a slow nod. he’s doing his best to be as dramatic as possible.

“i’ll accept it, but you’re on thin fucking ice.” his threatening appearance is discredited by the fact that he’s carrying jisung on his back, the younger looking very cute and minho looking way too soft for the boy, even as he’s trying to stare hyunjin down.

“don’t cuss!” the same voice as earlier shouts, now sounding much closer. there are footsteps thundering down the stairs, and it’s hard to believe one person can be so loud.

the stairs are visible from where they’re standing by the front door. moments after the steps start, they see a head peeking out between the railing, and the boy frowns as he sees the four strangers in their hallway.

jeongin, who’s gotten the furthest inside, walks toward the new arrival.

“minho hyung found some new adoptees for chan hyung”, he informs with a grin. “they’re the guys from instagram. hyung is gonna love this.”

once jeongin has turned and disappeared behind a corner, the boy on the stairs switches his focus back over to the new kids.

“hi, i’m changbin”, he says. “i’m gonna go get chan hyung, but i’ll be right back.”

the grin he sends minho upon noticing the exhausted boy on his back doesn’t go unnoticed, but minho can’t do anything other than hiss at him. literally. both hyunjin and felix flinch when he does, but they calm down when they see that he’s just hissing at changbin. it shouldn’t be as casual as it is, but it honestly fits pretty well with what they've seen of minho’s personality so far.

“we’ll give you a house tour once we’ve introduced you to the other two." jeongin suddenly reappears, this time with a juice box in one hand. he waves it at them. “do you want juice?”

the newcomers glance between each other, not wanting to take advantage of their hospitality, but jeongin notices this and grins. he turns to go get them some drinks without waiting for a response.

while he’s gone, minho shows them where to put their shoes, not putting jisung down even as he almost loses his balance kicking away his own sneakers. the other three do the same before following him further into the house, through a doorway that leads into a living room.

“did you get a good look at changbin?” minho asks as he shows them to the two couches in the room. “he has a very sharp chin. oh, feel free to insult him, he loves it when we do that.”

the older is clearly teasing.

all five of them settle down on the couches, minho carefully dropping jisung on it first. he then sits next to the younger, putting an arm around jisung’s shoulder as the boy moves closer to him.

jisung is probably too exhausted to care about the fact that he hasn’t left minho’s side once since the older first entered the practice room. minho himself doesn’t have as good of an excuse, but he shows no signs of wanting to move. they both seem rather comfortable next to each other.

they wait for jeongin, changbin and chan in silence, trying to process everything that has happened today. it’s a lot.

-:-

the four same age friends are a bit worried that this bang chan-character is going to be intimidating. maybe even rude. after all, he kind of sounds like he’s their leader from the way the others have spoken about him, and the four of them haven’t had the best experience when it comes to people in positions of power.

a pale boy dressed from head to toe in black, with a bleached mess of curls on top of his head is not what they’re expecting, but that’s who enters the room.

behind him is the boy they recognize as changbin, and jeongin is on his other side, peeking at them over chan’s shoulder. or, at least they assume that this is chan.

he doesn’t look very intimidating. more like he just woke up.

his expression brightens when he sees the group, and that’s very confusing to them. chan doesn’t even know who they are.

“hey, you’re park jinyoung’s kids!” he exclaims. ah, right. minho did mention that chan was the first one to hear about them. “or, well, not his kids, but you get what i mean. i’m bang chan.”

they all mumble ‘hello’ or some variation of it, and chan finally enters the room, taking a seat on the other couch. changbin and jeongin are still watching from the doorway. chan glances back at them.

“don’t be creepy. sit”, he orders, and they both step into the room.

ah, so he is their leader, then. he’s obviously got some sort of authority. the others have only spoken highly of him, even while making fun of each other, and they listen to him well.

chan turns around. the smile he sends them is not intimidating in the slightest, and the boys are confused by his behavior. is he bad or not?

“i already know your names from the instagram post, but nothing more. i’ve been trying to find you, actually. jinyoung doesn’t have the best history when it comes to being responsible for others. i was worried you were in a similar situation as the one jeongin used to be in.”

he looks to minho at this, who takes it as a cue to explain how he met them.

“i’ve told them about innie”, he says. “and they’ve told me a little, enough to understand that it’s been bad for them, as well. that’s why me and innie offered to let them stay with us.”

if chan is surprised by this, he doesn’t show it. he doesn’t even look upset in any way.

hyunjin, seungmin and felix are still sitting up way too straight, as if expecting that they’ll be kicked out any moment. everything’s a tad bit confusing right now.

“we have extra beds, but no extra bedrooms”, chan tells them. “but we all have our own rooms, so we could just put each of you with one of us. unless you don’t wanna be split up?”

“that’s okay”, seungmin quickly says. “thank you.”

chan smiles again.

“it’s no problem.”

“chan hyung thrives off of helping people”, changbin supplies from where he’s standing behind the couch where the oldest sits. chan looks like he wants to smack him. “it’s like a drug to him. i was kinda worried when he found you on social media, cause i thought he might go and kidnap you or something.”

“i would have been right to do so!” chan argues. “jyp is bad, they deserve better!”

“he gave me light bulbs”, jisung mumbles. an exhausted jisung, especially one who's also been drained of magic, doesn’t have a filter, and he also doesn’t listen much to what comes out of his own mouth. he clearly doesn’t realize that no one understands what he means with this.

they stare at him in confusion.

“jyp gave him light bulbs”, felix clarifies in his weak voice. it doesn’t help at all.

“every time he danced”, hyunjin takes over, “he would either drain himself of magic, or accidentally charge himself with it, and he had a few meltdowns, so jyp started giving him light bulbs to put his energy into whenever we were dancing.” the others in the room begin to understand.

“yeah, he used to break one light bulb every practice session”, seungmin adds. “it sucked, both because it didn’t actually help with the magic problem, but also because the glass would get stuck inside his clothes and cut him.”

jisung lifts one if his hands, and the cut that they’ve all forgotten about up until now becomes visible. the one he got earlier today.

it’s not bleeding, but his hand is covered in dried blood. minho can’t believe he hadn’t noticed that. seungmin told them earlier, but no one paid it any mind, and he obviously hasn’t had a chance to wash up. is the glass even out of the wound yet? how come jisung didn’t say anything?

while everyone else is still processing, jeongin steps forward. he bends down in front of jisung and minho on the couch, carefully taking the older boy’s hand. after a quick look at jisung’s face, he puts his fingers over the wound and lets some water flow out, cleaning away the blood while trying to avoid the actual wound.

“you’re spilling on the carpet”, changbin comments, but it doesn’t sound like he’s implying the boy should stop. he, along with everyone else, is simply staring at the scene.

while jeongin continues with that, chan speaks up again.

“yeah, so we’ve established that jyp sucks.” he looks toward the boys. “i’m sorry if it’s a sensitive topic, but do any of you have any family to stay with? or someone who might want to know where you are?”

they shake their heads.

“chan hyung, do your speech!” jeongin begs from his spot on the floor, briefly looking up at the pale boy as he speaks.

chan doesn’t seem too keen on this, but minho and changbin join in.

“yeah! they need to hear it”, changbin agrees.

“do it, do it, do it”, minho chants in the background.

“shut up, i’ll do it! ohmygosh, y’all are annoying…” he huffs, before turning toward the other four who are still staring at him in a mix of confusion and anticipation. “apparently, this is what i said to jeongin when he got here, and the others recorded it so now we all have it memorized.”

“just say it”, changbin says, and chan glares at him once more.

he turns back to the new kids and starts.

“so, here it goes: if you have a bad mom, or an absent mom, or no mom, i’m your mom now. it’s me. i’m your mother. i’m very proud of you and everything you’ve done, please rest well, and i’m gonna take you out for ice-cream later.”

it doesn’t sound like he’s reciting a speech, but maybe that’s part of the performance.

changbin and minho both clap their hands.

“ice-cream, ice-cream”, jeongin starts chanting, and the other two immediately join in.

chan ignores them completely.

“so, how old are you?” he turns to ask the others. the chanting continues in the background.

“we’re all born in 2000”, hyunjin answers, casting a glance at the insane people they seem to be surrounded by. the creepy chanting doesn’t help with that impression.

“oh, jeongin’s been wanting some 2000-liners!” changbin stops chanting to tell them this. “we have one every year from 97 to 01, but not any 00’s.”

“don’t say that, it sounds weird”, jeongin objects. he sits up straighter to glare at changbin, letting go of jisung’s hand. it’s mostly clean now.

“innie is right”, minho agrees. “you make it sound like they’re some sort of collectible.”

“isn’t that how chan hyung sees us?” changbin wonders, glancing at their oldest with a teasing smile.

chan sighs as minho and jeongin laugh at him.

“ _i live with a bunch of dumbasses_ ”, he says in english, his voice a mixture of exasperation and fondness. hyunjin, felix, jisung and seungmin all lift their heads at this, staring at the boy. he notices their expressions and gasps. “ _wait, you guys speak english_?”

“ _yes we do!_ ” jisung responds, switching language just to prove it. “ _felix is australian_.”

“ _oh thank god_ ”, chan says. “ _i’ve been living with koreans way too long_.”

“ _me and seungmin are korean, but i lived in malaysia for a while_.”

chan nods at the information, before freezing up. the younger boys look at him in question.

“ _i usually switch to english to insult these guys_ ”, he admits. “ _i guess that’s not gonna work now. not that it ever did. all i’ve done is teach them a bunch of curse words_.”

“ _dumbass_ ”, jeongin says with a grin, unknowingly choosing the best moment to prove chan’s point. seungmin reaches over to high five him, and the youngest’s grin widens. chan sighs again.

“okay, bedtime!” he announces.

“it’s five in the afternoon”, minho comments after a look toward the clock. “i’m not gonna sleep.”

“well”, chan says. “we should at least decide who sleeps where tonight. and maybe an early dinner, so they can get some rest after. we can talk more tomorrow. you have to be exhausted.”

he directs the last part at the new kids, who all nod.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't mention it last time but i use italics when chan and felix speak in english :p

they decide their roommates randomly the first night (or, well, jisung stays with minho because he still hasn’t left his side since the practice room and has gotten pretty comfortable with him, and felix stays with chan because they want to speak english… so maybe it’s not that random).

“changbin already has a bunk bed in his room, but the rest of you can get those camp-bed things from under the stairs”, chan says.

the rest of them go to get the extra beds, but minho can’t move without jostling jisung, and the younger boy doesn’t make a move to get up even when the rest of the boys disappear from the room.

“i can sleep on the couch”, he mumbles. minho disagrees with this. after everything he’s been through, the least he could do is sleep in a comfortable place.

“no”, minho says and pokes jisung’s cheek. it turns out to be extremely pokeable, so he does it again, and the boy who’s half-draped across his lap gives a small smile, not bothering to open his eyes. “you won’t be able to sleep comfortably here. let’s go get a bed.”

minho tries to lift jisung’s arm, but the boy does not want to move. his eyes are still closed, which minho takes a sign that he’s tired, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. his energy must be completely depleted at this point.

“no. sleepy.”

jisung’s voice sounds muffled from how he doesn’t bother to open his mouth properly. from what minho can see, they have two options: he leaves jisung somewhere and gets the bed by himself, or they could both sleep in minho’s bed. it’s big, so it’s not like they will have to be that close to each other.

the fact that they’re currently closer together than they would have to be on minho’s bed should say it all. after all, they’ll have more space there than they do on the couch.

“okay, fine”, minho gives in. “let’s go to bed.”

either jisung has no inhibitions at all when it comes to strangers, or he’s very tired (most likely the latter), because he doesn’t object when minho goes to lift him up bridal style. the older is very glad that the rest of the house’s inhabitants can’t see them right now, because he would for sure get teased for this if they knew.

meanwhile, hyunjin and changbin are heading toward changbin’s bedroom upstairs. like chan said, they boy has a bunk bed which means they don’t need to go through the efforts of setting up an extra bed for hyunjin to sleep in. there’s already a place for him to sleep.

as they walk through the upstairs hallway, changbin talks, trying to make hyunjin feel more at home. he can tell that the boy finds it a bit awkward, but it’s not like he can blame him. they’re essentially strangers that are going to be sharing a room. it’s natural to find that at least a little bit awkward, no matter the circumstances.

“so, i usually sleep in the bottom bunk, but if you’d rather sleep there, i would be fine with that”, he says, glancing back at hyunjin.

“no, it’s okay”, the other ensures him. changbin doesn’t feel like hyunjin would tell him if he did have a problem with something, but he doesn’t say that. he simply nods and shows hyunjin the door to his room.

“well, this is it.” he pushes the door open. it’s not usually closed, but he’s currently stuck in a battle against minho’s cats, since they seem to have picked changbin’s bed as their favorite place to leave hair and changbin is doing his best to slow their progress with that (quite unsuccessfully, for the record).

as hyunjin steps into the room and looks around, changbin is glad he cleaned up earlier. there’s not as much stuff strewn around as usual, even though he knows that the current neat state won’t last very long. at least he’ll make a decent first impression.

he wishes he wasn’t standing behind hyunjin, because he can’t see the other’s face and has no idea how the boy is reacting. it’s a bit weird to be showing off his room to a stranger like this. he truly has no way how to guess what hyunjin is thinking.

when the boy turns back to look at changbin, there’s a small smile on his face, and that calms him down a lot.

“our old apartment was always way messier than this”, hyunjin comments.

well, that’s a relief.

“honestly, i just cleaned today because minho hyung’s cats got hair all over my bed”, changbin admits. “this is the best it’s looked in weeks.”

hyunjin lets out a huff that might be a small laugh, changbin can’t tell.

he also isn’t sure if chan said they were gonna have dinner first, or if they were just going to bed. obviously, changbin isn’t very tired right now considering how early it is, but he fully understands that the four younger ones probably want to do so.

“should we go down and see if chan hyung’s making dinner?” he asks.

hyunjin nods, and changbin once again takes the lead as they head down to the kitchen again.

changbin knows he’s only a year or so older than the newcomers, but the way hyunjin holds himself, as if he’s afraid to relax, makes him feel like he’s older in some unexplainable way. he hopes that with time, they can all feel more free to relax.

-:-

“ _would you rather go to sleep now, or eat first?_ ” chan asks. felix seems a bit startled, giving chan an odd look that the older isn’t sure how to interpret.

“why are you speaking in english?” felix questions instead of responding.

chan stops.

“ _you’re australian, right?_ ” the boy had been speaking english earlier, so he really hopes he hasn’t misunderstood, but no, felix nods to this. that’s relieving. “ _good! i haven’t had a chance to speak english with someone in a while, and it’s been even longer since i talked to another aussie_.”

felix still seems apprehensive for some reason, but chan doesn’t want to force anything out of him when he and the rest of the boys must be pretty overwhelmed already. now isn’t the best time for deep talks to deal with all the issues they’re surely facing after leaving the horrible conditions they’ve been living in during their years as trainees. they should set up the bed so he can sleep, and then they’ll talk more tomorrow.

turns out he doesn’t have to ask.

“ _i haven’t gotten to speak english in a while, either_ ”, felix slowly says. chan nods, prompting the boy to continue while hoping that he doesn’t seem too eager to find out what the issue is. “ _i wasn’t really allowed to. jyp wanted me to practice korean, so i was always told to stop whenever i said something in english_.”

it almost physically hurts how unsurprised chan is by that. as much as it sucks, he had kind of been expecting it.

“ _how long have you been speaking korean?_ ” chan asks.

“ _since i came to korea, a little over two years ago_.”

that… does not sound good. chan doesn’t want to ask about it, but he really hopes jyp didn’t do anything worse than simply telling felix to stop whenever he spoke in english, because he doesn’t want to imagine any sort of punishment being involved. knowing the other things that went on over there, though… it wouldn’t be surprising.

“ _well, i’m glad you came here, and i’m glad we met, despite everything that happened before_.”

felix’s expression brightens, and he really resembles the sun when he smiles like this.

chan can’t change what they went through, but he can do his best to give felix better experiences to associate this country with.

while those two work on getting the bed into the older’s bedroom, seungmin and jeongin have already gotten theirs all the way to jeongin’s room and are currently in the middle of setting it up.

“isn’t it kind of ironic how we’re sharing a room?” jeongin comments. when all seungmin does is look at him with a frown, the youngest goes on to explain. “your power is fire, and i’m water. we’re opposites.”

“oh. that’s true.”

they lift the mattress onto the bed, grabbing one side each before lifting it up.

once they’ve made the bed, with seungmin sitting on top of it and jeongin has plopped down on his own bed against the opposite wall, the younger speaks again.

“when i first came here, i was constantly expecting to get kicked out.” seungmin turns away from where he’d been staring at a bookshelf to instead look at jeongin, but the boy is facing the window as he speaks. “i don’t know, i guess it just baffled me that instead of getting chewed out for every small mistake, these guys would help me solve whatever the problem was. i caused a lot of water damage before i started going to therapy and learned to control my powers, and deal with my emotions in a better way, but the hyungs never got mad at me for it.”

seungmin thinks he knows why jeongin is telling him this, and he appreciates it. things have gotten a lot better for jeongin, and things can get better for the four of them, too, even if it’s not quick or easy.

“i’m glad you found them”, seungmin tells him. jeongin smiles, and it somehow changes his entire face. it seems a lot brighter.

“i’m really grateful for it, even if i didn’t find them”, jeongin says. “they found me.”

-:-

it starts out as an indefinite stay. the boys never say how long they need before they can find somewhere else to go, and the house owners never imply that they’re expecting the boys to leave. in fact, both parties only grow more comfortable with each other’s presence with every passing day.

it’s a weird transition. the four previous trainees go from overworking themselves every single day, to not having any responsibilities at all, and it doesn’t make sense to them that chan and the others would let them stay here without demanding anything in return. they’re not sure if it’s a testament to how kind the others are, or just another way their time at jyp has fucked them up. apparently, there are lots of things they’ll need need to work on before they can live a quote-unquote “normal” life again.

hyunjin wakes up in the middle of the first night, having no idea of where he is or what’s going on. all he remembers is darkness and a heavy pounding in his chest. every breath feels heavy, and his skin feels like it’s covered in a thin layer of sweat even though he can’t even recall the nightmare he just had. the fear is still strong, so strong it’s almost tangible.

he holds his hands out in front of himself and sees that they’re shaking, as well as fading in and out of view. that’s just perfect.

by now, he can recall where he is, but the voice that reaches him from the bed underneath his own still startles him.

“hyunjin…?” changbin mumbles, his voice laced with sleep. “are you okay?”

his movements must have made enough noise to wake the other up. or maybe it was the loud breathing, hyunjin has no idea, but changbin is awake either way.

“i’m fine, it was just a nightmare…” hyunjin says, but it feels like he’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s talking to changbin. there’s no way the older believes him.

he feels the bed move as changbin gets up, and a moment later, a head pops up to the side of hyunjin’s bunk, almost at the exact same moment as hyunjin sees his fingers disappear fully. he’s invisible.

somehow, changbin still looks directly at his face. not necessarily meeting his eyes, but definitely close to where his eyes would be if he wasn’t invisible right now.

“was it a nightmare?” changbin asks, but hyunjin is distracted by the fact that the boy doesn’t even appear to notice that hyunjin’s entire body has disappeared.

“how can you see me?” he asks instead, staring at changbin.

the older shrugs.

“i can’t really see…?” well, that’s not a good explanation. luckily, changbin continues. “i know where to look because i can hear where you are. my power is mind-reading, but please don’t freak out, i promise i’m not listening to your thoughts right now. i’m just… i don’t know how to describe it. it’s kind of like listening without tuning in. i can hear where your thoughts are coming from, but i can’t make out what you’re thinking about, if that makes sense?”

once changbin stops rambling, it’s quiet for a few moments. hyunjin tries to regulate his breathing before responding, the fear after his nightmare beginning to fade a little as he focuses on talking.

“that’s honestly so cool.”

changbin’s expression looks relieved as he picks up on how genuine hyunjin sounds.

“i’m glad you think so. a lot of people don’t agree with you.”

he mumbles the last part of the sentence, but in the silence of the room, it’s easily heard.

changbin turns his eyes to hyunjin’s face again, and hyunjin wonders if it’s weird to pretend that he’s looking at another person only for the sake of making hyunjin feel seen, despite the invisibility. he appreciates the gesture, though. not a lot of people would bother to do something like that just to making him more comfortable.

“i think mind-reading is only a problem if it’s a person you don’t trust”, hyunjin breaks the silence. “if you trust the person, you should trust that they won’t read your mind unless you want them to.”

“does that mean you trust me?” changbin asks, genuinely curious to hear the answer. they’ve known each other for less than a day, so it wouldn’t really make sense for the answer to be a ‘yes’, but that’s what hyunjin is implying.

“i mean, you haven’t done anything to make me not trust you.”

at this, the older raises his eyebrows.

“if that’s your only criteria to trust a person, i’m not sure how safe it is for you to make new friends”, changbin comments in a light tone. hyunjin giggles. “but it’s nice to hear that you trust me.”

maybe hyunjin doesn’t fully trust the people in this house yet, but from what he’s seen, they seem like good people. hyunjin hasn’t allowed himself to depend on anyone except for his three best friends for the past years, but with time, he thinks he might allow himself to care for a few more.

he decides to say this out loud.

“well, maybe i don’t trust you the same way i trust jisung, felix or seungmin, cause i’ve known them for a lot longer, but i feel like i could trust you. in the future.”

changbin smiles at this.

“building trust takes time, so i get what you mean”, he says. there’s a brief pause where he just looks at hyunjin (or where hyunjin should be), and the younger notices his own hands flickering between visible and invisible a few times. “do you wanna try to go back to sleep?”

hyunjin stares at his fingers, waiting to see if they’re going to become invisible again.

when they don’t, he turns his head to look at changbin, and he nods.

-:-

when jisung wakes up that morning, he’s no longer sleep-deprived or energy-depleted, and he feels a lot more conscious than he had the previous day. all the events that he didn’t have the energy to react to yesterday are catching up to him now, and he thinks about how awkward it must have been for minho to have a total stranger pretty much attach himself to him for the entirety of the afternoon and then sleep in his bed.

“hey, calm down, you’re okay.”

minho’s voice manages to catch jisung off-guard, even though he speaks in a soft tone. he turns his head to look at the older, who’s right next to him on the bed, his face already turned to jisung with a worried expression. minho has his hands laying on the mattress between them, as if he had been about to reach out but wasn’t sure if he should.

jisung is too overwhelmed by his own thoughts to notice the electric buzz in his fingertips or to think about what it might mean.

“how could you touch me?” he questions, causing minho to frown. “yesterday, when i sucked up all the energy in the jyp building. my skin must have been really hot. how didn’t you burn yourself?”

realization falls over minho’s face.

“ah, that. my power is ice”, he says. “hot temperatures don’t really bother me, because i can use my own ability to avoid getting burned.”

at least jisung feels a bit better to know that he wasn’t hurting minho.

“but hey, are you okay?” minho continues.

for a moment, jisung is confused, not understanding what the older is talking about or why he would randomly ask how jisung is feeling. it’s not like he’s done anything to make the other think that he’s anything other than fine.

then, he notices they way his hands won’t stop shaking, and how it feels like electricity is burning right underneath his skin. ah. that’s what minho is talking about.

he sits up and holds his hands out, away from his body. seeing the blue glow that appears around his fingers makes his breathing pick up, and the shaking only seems to increase.

“i don’t know why i’m freaking out…” jisung whispers. he wants to roll up into a ball, but at the same time, he also wants to keep his hands as far away from his body as possible, which isn’t possible if he curls up like that. the two different instincts are currently fighting to win control over his body.

“your body is expecting pain”, minho’s voice breaks through the increasing panic that is clouding his thoughts. “when this usually happens, you break a light bulb. right?”

jisung nods. he doesn’t have a light bulb right now though, and the thought of accidentally releasing his magic here, where nice people could get hurt, only makes him more scared.

“i can’t lose control”, jisung says, his voice only slightly louder than a whisper. “not here, not now.” minho must pick up on the panic in it, because he sits up straighter and carefully puts a hand on jisung’s shoulder before speaking next.

“i’m not gonna get you a light bulb, because i don’t want you to get hurt, but i might have another idea.” jisung finally looks up at him, away from his own hands. “do you think you can leave this room? it’s on the other side of the hallway.”

he nods, and minho gets out of the bed before walking around to help jisung down from it, the younger not wanting to use his hands in case they’ve reached a temperature that could set fire to the bed sheets.

just like minho had said, they’re only going to a room right across the hall from minho’s own bedroom.

after stepping inside, jisung notices that this is another bedroom, and there are two beds set up on one side of the room, as well as two sleeping figures that start moving around at the sound of someone coming into their room.

“hey hyung, i think you mentioned that you needed a new amplifier for your electric guitar”, minho says casually as he guides jisung through the room, toward the chair standing in front of a desk, walking past the two beds without caring much for the sleeping boys in them. “good news, i found one for you!”

he sits jisung down on the chair before going to pick up the electric guitar that’s hanging on one of the walls, handing it over to jisung almost immediately. the younger takes it, even though he gives minho a confused look first and glances at the two others in the room.

“minho, what are you doing?” a sleepy chan asks, opening one eye to glare at minho.

“trying to prevent the power from going out”, he answers casually. chan makes a confused noise in response to this, already closing his eyes again.

the figure on the other bed is sitting up, and jisung finds himself meeting felix’s eyes. his one day younger friend must pick up on the panic in his expression, because any trace of tiredness disappears from felix’s face within half a second.

“go on, ji”, felix tells him. “play.”

jisung casts a quick glance at minho, who’s smiling in what he hopes is an encouraging way, and then at chan, who looks like he’s gone back to sleep.

“waking everyone up is better than making things explode, or setting something on fire because the electricity jumped somewhere it shouldn’t have”, minho says, clearly sensing jisung’s hesitation.

and yeah, he’s right about that. acting as a human sound amplifier is ten times better than blowing things up. he had been lucky yesterday, when all the power in the building entered his body. it would have been just as easy to accidentally misdirect all the electricity into a single appliance, like a speaker or a microwave, and that would almost certainly have caused either a fire or an explosion (or both).

jisung doesn’t need any more convincing before shifting his focus to the guitar, trying to direct all the extra electricity he’s currently generating to go into the instrument.

even without touching the strings, he can feel it the moment it starts working. it’s almost like a switch turns on inside him. energy moves from his own body into the guitar.

“play”, felix says again. “i can sing with you, if you think it’s awkward to play on your own.”

jisung does the first thing that pops into his head, and starts playing the chords for one of the songs that was meant to be a b-side on their debut EP. felix clearly recognizes it, and even though he just woke up, he starts rapping the lyrics for the first verse.

jisung’s full attention is on making sure that enough power is going into the guitar, and that he plays the right chords at the right time, meaning that he doesn’t notice it when chan sits up on his bed to listen, or when a few more people appear in the doorway to the room.

what he does notice is when a second voice takes over for the pre-chorus. seungmin’s voice. and then, a few seconds later, hyunjin comes in at the chorus.

jisung doesn’t turn his head around to look, but he gets the impression that everyone in the house must be in the room at this point. that probably makes sense, considering there’s music being played. people tend to be drawn to that.

by the time they reach the end of the song, jisung feels a lot calmer. his fingers aren’t shaking or glowing with blue light anymore. powering an electric guitar has been a lot more helpful (and a lot less dangerous) than breaking light bulbs, and he appreciates minho for thinking of it so quickly.

speaking of. the older is still standing next to him, a small smile on his face as his eyes meet jisung’s. the boy is a bit too dazed to speak, so he hopes his expression can convey everything he wants to say to minho right now.

behind him, jisung sees that changbin and jeongin have taken a seat on chan’s bed, where the blond man is also awake. the three of them must have been listening to the music.

hyunjin, seungmin and felix are gathered by the younger australian’s bed. jisung isn’t surprised to see them here, considering he just heard their voices when they were singing together, but it’s nice either way. as comfortable as he feels with these strangers (despite how little time has passed since they first met), it’s grounding to have people that are familiar to you. seeing them is like finding an oasis in the desert.

“feel better?” minho breaks the silence.

jisung looks back at him and nods, suddenly feeling like there are too many people around.

“you play guitar really well”, chan says from where he’s sitting on his bed, sending a small smile toward jisung. “and you all sing really well, too.”

it’s the first time they’ve been able to sing freely in a long time, with no fear of the critique that always used to come afterwards. this feels a lot better.

-:-

“ _i’ve noticed that you never seem to lose control over your powers_ ”, chan comments one day when he walks in on felix trying to help one of the flowers on the windowsill grow. it had taken chan several days of living together before he realized that felix never displayed any powers, and the older had to ask what felix’s ability was, since he never noticed him using it. now, he knows that felix has some earth-plant-growing power.

the freckled boy turns away from the potted plant to look at chan.

“ _i mean_ ”, he starts, “ _i guess my powers work a bit differently to how it is for the others…? like, jisung’s electricity thing happens whenever his emotions are too intense, both good and negative emotions, but hyunjin and seungmin only lose control of their powers when they have a negative emotion that’s too strong_.”

chan sits down next to him on the couch, a small frown as he thinks about what felix is saying.

“ _what do you mean?_ ”

“ _like, when jisung is really happy and hype, he sometimes gets overcharged with electricity. hyunjin and seungmin wouldn’t get like that just from being happy. for them, they only lose control when they’re scared or insecure, or experiencing some other negative emotion. i don’t know why it’s like that, but i don’t think it’s something we can change. they just have to learn how to deal with it_.”

that is honestly very interesting. chan is definitely going to read more about the psychological and emotional side of magical abilities after this conversation to try and learn more about how it works.

“ _and for you?_ ” he asks.

“ _my emotions don’t make me lose control of powers in the same way_ ”, felix responds. “ _it’s more like my powers get blocked, if that makes sense? like, if i’m feeling stressed or insecure, i can’t use my powers at all. it’s pretty much the opposite of what happens to the others_.”

chan himself has only experienced people losing control over their powers in the sense that they’re overwhelmed by the ability, and the magic seems to run freely. he’s heard of people who experience what felix is describing, but he hasn’t met anyone like that before.

“ _not to get really nerdy with you, but psychology is honestly really interesting and i’ve read a little about how our powers are related to our mental health, but also to our personalities. i’ve heard about the thing you’re describing from one of the texts i read, but i haven’t met anyone who experiences it_.”

“ _ah, really? what did you learn from reading about it?_ ” felix wonders.

chan pauses to think about how to phrase it.

“ _i mean… it was a while ago, but i remember it said something about how if your power gets blocked, it’s usually because of fear or anxiety, but it could also be a side effect of depression_.”

at this, felix frowns. chan waits for him to say what he’s thinking.

“ _is that_ …” felix trails off, before starting over. “ _do you think it’s something that needs to be fixed?_ ”

“ _depression? or the thing where your powers are blocked?_ ”

“ _the power thing_.”

again, chan has to pause to think about how to phrase himself in a way that won’t come across as rude, or as him trying to dictate felix’s life. obviously he can’t relate to the experience, but most people’s powers are affected by their emotions in some way. at least he can relate to that part.

“ _that’s a really complicated question_ ”, he says, and felix grins. “ _cause like, yes, but also no_.”

felix gives him the most deadpan expression he’s ever seen (at least if you don’t count minho - that boy is the master of making deadpan expressions), and it makes chan laugh out loud.

“ _okay, okay, i’ll give an actual response!_ ” he takes a breath before continuing. “ _so, we all have different ways that we deal with negative emotions, right? it doesn’t matter if your powers become unbearably strong, so much that you lose control over them, or if your powers get blocked, as long as you have a way to deal with it. i guess that’s what’s important here. can you deal with it?_ ”

felix is quiet as he considers the question.

“not really”, he eventually says, switching between languages without thinking about it. “ _when we were training, i sometimes went weeks without using my powers at all, because i just couldn’t use them_.”

chan nods as he listens to felix talk, feeling bad for the boy.

“ _then that’s probably something you wanna learn how to deal with. right?_ ”

felix frowns.

“ _i mean… yeah, but how?_ ”

“ _well, therapy could be a good place to start_ ”, chan says gently. “ _honestly, after what all four of you have been through, it might be something all of you should try. i’m not gonna force anyone to go, but you could think about it_.”

it sounds scary, but not as much if he doesn’t have to do it alone.

-:-

as much as they love their new housemates, it’s nice to have some time to themselves. and no, that doesn’t mean being alone. considering how they haven’t had a break from each other at all in the past two years, maybe it makes sense that they consider alone-time to be time spent with their closest friends.

chan is at work, while minho and changbin have some school thing they have to go in for, and jeongin is meeting up with a friend.

the millennial boys take this time to go for a walk in a nearby park together. the air is warm, a sign of the rapidly approaching summer. soon enough it will be too hot for long sleeved shirts, but it works for now.

the park isn’t far away. it’s not long before they find themselves strolling through it, pointing out pretty flowers or small animals they see as they walk.

they’ve been walking in silence for a few minutes when jisung speaks up.

“what do you wanna do with your lives, now that you can do anything?” he asks.

after casting a quick glance around at the other boys, who seem to be considering the question deeply, seungmin answers.

“honestly, i wanna go back to school.” jisung turns to look at him, and seungmin continues. “i’m not sure what i’m technically allowed to study, if they require certain grades and stuff, but i’d like to do something within healthcare. maybe physical therapy.”

“that suits you”, jisung comments, nodding slowly. they’ve reached a smaller section of the park, where there’s a seesaw and a swing set, almost hidden behind a few trees as if it’s not actually meant to be played on. the four boys walk over to it, seungmin taking felix in his lap on one of the swings while jisung sits on the other. hyunjin watches from the side.

“do you know the flower shop across the street from our house?” felix asks as seungmin gives the swing a bit of speed. the others all nod. “i wouldn’t mind working in a place like that. i think it would be nice.”

“that suits you too”, jisung replies with a small smile. he tilts his head back to look toward the sky. “what about you, hyunjinnie?”

the other takes a few seconds to reply.

“i’m not sure”, he says. “i wasn’t really allowed to be passionate about the things we were doing back at jyp, but i think i could really love dancing if i got to do it without all the pressure, but i’m not sure…”

“that’s fine”, seungmin says softly, sending the other boy a smile. “you could try to take few lessons maybe, see if it’s something you actually wanna do. you don’t have to make any big commitments to anything.”

hyunjin nods.

“what about you, jisungie?” he then asks.

jisung looks away from the sky and turns toward the rest of them.

“chan hyung asked me if i could play guitar to one of his songs yesterday”, he says. “so i was helping him come up with suggestions for strumming patterns and that kinda stuff, which is what made me thing about this. cause i think i might wanna do music. it sucked when we were back there, but now it feels fun again.” he doesn’t have to clarify what place he’s talking about in order for them to understand.

“that’s true”, felix agrees, and seungmin nods behind him.

they’re free to enjoy things now.

-:-

the boys are introduced to a life that’s so incredibly different from the way they used to live, even before they ended up at jyp, and it makes every new experience feel like a gift.

family dinners are apparently a thing here. a very enjoyable thing, they would like to add, even though it’s not something they’re used to.

cooking together is fun. it’s a bit (a lot) of a mess, but maybe that’s why they enjoy it so much.

“jisung and minho, could you maybe stop trying to poison the food?” chan’s voice breaks through the buzz of sound inside the kitchen. he’s standing behind them and watching as they get dangerously close to emptying some hot spice over the food they’re preparing together.

jisung turns to him with an innocent expression while minho exclaims,

“we weren’t even trying to do that!”

chan doesn’t look like he believes him, but at least the two boys move away from the spices after that, so he counts it as a success. that’s one disaster avoided.

in another part of the kitchen, felix and seungmin are struggling to make pancakes.

“ _too much butter!_ ” felix says, and then laughs as seungmin tries to fix the problem by putting more of the batter into the frying pan. hopefully the pancakes will still be edible by the time they’re done.

“maybe you should just give up”, jeongin suggests from where he’s standing to the side, looking at the two boys as they try (and fail) to make decent pancakes.

“at least we’re actually doing something”, seungmin says, casting a quick glance in chan’s direction. “chan hyung is only here to eat bread and judge our cooking skills.”

as offended as he is, chan can’t argue with this. seungmin is absolutely correct.

their cooking session continues in a similar fashion until the food is finished and they sit down to eat. they quiet down slightly for the first minutes, but conversation is in full swing again not long after, laughter and music mixing in the air.

once a month has passed since they moved in, it doesn’t seem like the millennial boys are leaving at all. they fit right in with the other four.


	3. Chapter 3

things change in a year, but a lot of things last.

jisung may not be causing himself to bleed whenever he’s overcharged with electrical power, but he still has the scars on his hands as proof of what he’s been through, and sometimes he wakes up with the memory of searing pain so vivid that he thinks he’s back in the practice room and a light bulb just exploded on him. the difference is that now, there’s someone there to comfort him, voices that remind him that it’s not real. not anymore.

hyunjin still loses control over his powers whenever he’s stressed, and it makes him turn invisible. the difference is that now, there’s no one yelling at him about how he needs to be seen. now, there’s a person who can still hear him, someone who knows where he is without needing him to be visible and stays with him until he can calm down enough to become visible again.

seungmin still sets things on fire whenever the negative feeling of being out of control gets to him. the difference is that now, there’s someone there to help him put the fire out, people that help remind him that it’s okay, that he’s not a failure for not constantly being on top of everything.

felix still feels the weight of people’s expectations of him, feels the constant need to work more, push harder, get better. the difference is that now, the guilt he feels for not reaching the insane standards he’s used to comparing himself to is eased with the help of others, with the soft reminders that he’s allowed to learn and improve at his own pace.

it’s not over, even though it is. maybe it will never truly be over for them. the scars will always be there.

at least they have a support system now.

“guys, come on, you’re gonna be late again!” chan shouts from downstairs.

the door to jisung’s and jeongin’s room is the only one still closed, but the rest of the boys aren’t ready to leave either. from the hallway, you can see into minho and hyunjin’s room, where minho is throwing clothes at the younger in an attempt to get him to finish getting dressed faster. it’s not working very well.

there’s a screech from the open door on the other side of the hallway, a screech that sounds suspiciously much like changbin. minho and hyunjin don’t even flinch. it’s followed almost immediately by felix’s laugh, so it can’t be that serious.

“stop laughing! i’m over here dying, and you’re laughing!” that’s definitely changbin’s voice.

“you’re not dying”, they hear felix respond. “that was just dori trying to get affection from you, you’re fine. stop yelling.”

“how was i supposed to know that demon was hiding under my bed? dori scared the shit out of me. she doesn’t want affection, she wants to see me have a heart attack and die!”

a moment later, a cat slips out through the opening to their bedroom and disappears down the hallway, unaware and unbothered by the chaos she leaves behind her. minho sees it and gets up to follow the cat, leaving hyunjin to get dressed on his own.

changbin and felix are still arguing about how likely it is that dori wants to kill him, hyunjin can’t seem to find two matching socks, and the door to jisung’s and jeongin’s room still hasn’t opened. it’s oddly quiet in there. no one would be surprised if the two boys have somehow managed to fall asleep again in the middle of all this chaos.

“how much do you wanna bet we’ll be at least five minutes late?” seungmin asks chan. they’re standing near the front door downstairs, the only two who are ready to leave the house on time.

chan glances at his phone.

“well, it’s already been twenty minutes since i said everyone should get to the car”, he comments. “i think five minutes is a bit optimistic. twenty sounds more likely.”

at this pace, it will be a miracle if they make it to their therapy session before it ends.

-:-

“i bet one chicken nugget that there’s been at least one disaster while we weren’t home“, hyunjin says as he opens the gate to the house. behind him, seungmin raises his eyebrows and enters behind the slightly older boy.

“wow, a whole chicken nugget? you’re wild”, he comments.

the two of them are returning from work. in order for seungmin to pay for his education in physical therapy, and hyunjin to pay for his dance lessons, both of them had to get jobs. they’d decided to do it together. to be honest, the cafe where they work doesn’t pay much, but it’s enough, and they like what they do. it’s a nice way to spend the days when they don’t have classes.

“the worth of a chicken nugget can’t be measured by how much it costs, you have to look at the emotional value it holds.” hyunjin nods, as if he just said the wisest thing ever. seungmin resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“oh, yes. are you sure you’re studying dance, and not philosophy?”

hyunjin hits him on the shoulder just as seungmin opens the front door.

the entrance is clear aside from the mess of shoes that’s always right by the door, but at the end of the hall, where it leads into a living room, they can see two boys sitting on the floor. felix and jisung.

the two of them turn toward the new arrivals with similar looks of guilt on their faces. the expressions make no sense for the first few seconds, until seungmin and hyunjin catch sight of what’s in the living room behind them.

all four of them stare at each other for several moments before someone speaks up.

“why is there a kiddie pool in the middle of our living room?” seungmin asks slowly.

“and why are you filling it with slime?” hyunjin adds.

jisung and felix glance at each other.

“why not?” jisung answers.

seungmin blinks. this is not the situation he had been expecting to deal with when he entered the house. he’s not sure how he’s supposed to respond to that.

“i mean… you’ll make a mess, it’s highly inconvenient, the hyungs might be annoyed with you, and the kiddie pool is definitely in the way.”

felix shrugs.

“sounds to me like you’re just trying to make excuses”, he says with a grin.

“where did you even get all the slime from?” hyunjin wonders, saving seungmin from having to respond to felix’s words.

the september twins glance at each other once more before facing hyunjin with expressions that are way too serious for this situation.

“a businessman never reveals his secret”, jisung says, and felix nods solemnly from beside him.

“ah, i shouldn’t have asked.” hyunjin shifts his focus back to the slime. “so how are you gonna get rid of it?”

felix looks genuinely confused by this.

“get rid of it?” he repeats. he then shakes his head. “no, no, we’re not gonna get rid of it. this is a permanent addition to our living room.”

“we’ll see what chan hyung says about that”, seungmin mumbles. the twins don’t hear him, or maybe they choose to ignore his comment. probably the latter. to be fair, he doesn’t really want to think about what their hyungs will say, either.

“have you tried it yet?” hyunjin continues to ask. at this, the two boys’ faces brighten.

“not yet!” jisung says. “do you wanna join us?”

“is that even a question?” hyunjin retorts.

the three others all turn to seungmin, silently waiting for his answer.

he shrugs.

“i mean, when else will i get to bathe in slime? let’s do it.”

they all cheer at this.

-:-

“movie night!” jeongin yells. him, felix and hyunjin rush toward the pool in front of the tv.

it’s two weeks later, and the kiddie pool has, in fact, become a permanent addition to their living room. chan forced them to get rid of the slime as soon as he saw it, claiming that it was unhygienic and would get old if they left it in there, but he’d allowed them to keep the kiddie pool set up in the middle of the room (jisung and felix still haven’t revealed where they got it from).

now, the small pool is filled with blankets and pillows, a perfect place to sit during their weekly movie nights. it’s also very popular. after the mess that had occurred the first time everyone tried out the kiddie pool, they’d set up a rule that only four people can sit in the kiddie pool at once. it’s best that way.

jeongin, felix and hyunjin all jump into the pool at once, barely managing to avoid landing on each other.

the remaining five boys look at each other.

minho is already seated on the couch, and his lap is looking really inviting right now.

“not me”, jisung replies before flopping down across the older’s lap. minho lifts a hand to play with his hair, clearly content with the position they’re in.

“i’m not sitting anywhere near innie”, changbin says, to which their maknae gives an innocent smile. “last movie night, he spent the entire time kicking me. i can’t trust him.”

“noo, innie would never do that!” felix objects, putting his arms around jeongin as he defends him, despite knowing just how capable jeongin is of doing exactly that. “he’s an angel!”

changbin just shakes his head and sits on the couch. seungmin glances between the kiddie pool and the couch before following changbin.

“i wanna annoy changbin hyung!” he says, showing an angelic smile that doesn’t match his words in the slightest. changbin doesn’t seem as pleased with his decision to avoid the pool anymore, but he still lets seungmin sit next to him on the couch.

this leaves chan as the last man standing, and the three boys in the kiddie pool all turn their attention to him.

“chan hyung!” felix yells, holding his arms out toward the older, ready to pull him down into the pile of pillows.

“chan hyung!” jeongin copies.

“chan hyung!” of course, hyunjin has to join in, as well. he guesses he has no choice but to join them, which he does with a smile on his face.

they start the movie as soon as everyone has settled down. a calm sort of silence fall over the room. they all stay cuddled up with each other, watching the movie in silence that's only occasionally broken by jisung making whispered comments to minho in the dark, and minho giggling back at him. it's quiet enough that no one else is bothered by it. halfway into the movie, changbin is pretty much using seungmin as a teddy bear, though the younger doesn't seem to mind. jeongin is on chan's lap, and felix has his head leaning against hyunjin's shoulder.

today, like so many days before, and like so many days to come, things are okay.


End file.
